1. Blake describes innocence and experience as “the two contrary states of the human soul.” What do you think he means by this?
2. Compare the mode of creation described in “The Lamb” with that of “The Tyger.” How are they similar? How are they different?
3. In “London” the speaker says he hears “mind-forged manacles” (line 8) What do you think that phrase means?
4. What differences do you see between the two “Chimney Sweeper” poems?
5. The introductory poem to Songs of Innocence refers to a poet/singer/piper who composes “…happy songs,/Every child may joy to hear.” To what extent does this line describe the poems in Songs of Innocence?
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4. What differences do you see between the two “Chimney Sweeper” poems?
The main difference that I noticed is that in the first “Chimney Sweeper” the boy didn’t show how much he suffers, he seemed to accept the reality and tried to be as happy as possible. In the second “Chimney Sweeper” poem the boy says “And because I am happy and dance and sing, They think they have done me no injury,..”(340. Which shows us how much he tried to pretend to be happy, but the fact of the matter is that he is miserable and he understands that others are confused by the mask of happiness that he puts on.
4. What difference do you see between the two “Chimney Sweeper” poems?
In the first chimney sweeper poem we see someone who is optimistic and very happy and keeps his chin up and is very expressive of how happy and content he is but we learn that appearances always what they seem and we learn that he really is very sad and has suffered a great deal. This alludes to the concepts of the titles. Innocence being naive and the truth being dodgy while experience is the whole truth which is not always the nicest and brightest.
1. Blake describes innocence and experience as “the two contrary states of the human soul.” What do you think he means by this?
Blake’s description of innocence and experience as “the two contrary states of the human soul,” is to explain the innocent, usually the youth, is the state of being naive, uninformed, and pure. The innocent state is usually at the beginning stage of a human soul, and it needs to bear fruit of wisdom and knowledge. On the contrary to innocence, through the fruit of wisdom and knowledge comes forth the state of the experience, where the human soul has been well versed, nurtured with knowledge, and matured. The experience are the ones that are capable, hardened, and accomplished in which the innocent will eventually shape up into.
1. Blake describes innocence and experience as “the two contrary states of the human soul.” What do you think he means by this?
I think that Blake means that innocence and experience are basically opposites of each other. When a person is innocent, they lack experience and when a person is experienced, they lack innocence. This is what causes it be contrary states that a person deals with.
1. Blake describes innocence and experience as “the two contrary states of the human soul.” What do you think he means by this?
As Blake boldly states the two contrary states of the human soul, it is fair to say that he is talking about the evolution of a human beings mind set. During youth, one’s soul is pure and innocent. It is not knowledgable of the “bad,” of the world, and also, is perhaps ignorant in that matter as well. Blake then later describes the same soul, however this time with the experience and knowledge. With experience comes knowledge of the real world, which includes the bad. I believe that Blake makes this comparison to describe the evolution of the human soul through knowledge. He does this by describing two contrary states of the same human soul. However, the only difference is that one of those states has obtained knowledge of the real world.
By contrary I think he means the complete opposite of one another. I say this because when you are young you and are very innocent and seen as “dumb”. however once you become older you are seen as wiser. in addition innocence and experience are two contrary states of human life because so do not know right from wrong and we have not learned what bad is. we can only learn such things through experience and the idea is that once we start to learn and experience things we are no longer innocent. I have an idea that knowledge is a double edge sword because as we learn things through experience we lose our innocence each time we learn something new.